When a patient submits to surgery under general anaesthesia and his respiration is to be monitored, or when a patient is to be revived by inducing respiration, the attending anaesthetist, physician, or other professional will insert a tube into the throat to hold the breathing passage or airway open.
This intubation process includes the attachment and use within the system of an air rebreathing bag unit or a resuscitator bag unit as the case may be, moulded or otherwise fabricated from a suitable rubber compound or its equivalent which is structured to expand and contract in response to the inhalation and expiration functions of the lungs whereby a patient's condition can be visually monitored or through manipulation induce respiration as may be required for example under deep anaesthesia or where otherwise a patient's vital signs so indicate.
Interior surfaces of air rebreathing bag units or resuscitator bag units in such a setting will collect moisture from the gas mixture exhaled from the lungs. Interior surfaces of such hollow components therefore must be thoroughly cleansed and sterilized with aqueous or other solutions and dried before any reuse.
The time interval required for cleansing and sterilizing such hollow components carried out in available equipment is relatively short.
It is currently normal practice to subject air rebreathing or resuscitator bag units as well as other similar hollow articles to a lengthy drying step in which such articles are placed within an enclosure and subjected to heated air for a period of several hours to evaporate adhering liquid droplets before removal for reuse.
This extended time interval is not only a controlling factor in determining how many air rebreathing bag units, for example, must be purchased in order to maintain a full surgical schedule for any hospital or similar facility, but the elevated temperature causes deterioration of the rubber or equivalent compounds from which those articles are moulded or fabricated.